Each year, high school students exercise their rights and vote. Not in any government election, as most are too young, but in their class officer elections. These positions are hardly as political, yet very important. Typical positions like Treasurer, Secretary, Historian, Vice Principal, and of course, Class President, have important roles to help make the high school experience for each class as great as possible. As the school year comes to end, Raj Paghdal, Nutley High School’s Class of 2020 President sat with The Maroon and Gray and reflected on his time as an officer.

As COVID-19 spread across the US, schools all across the country have been effectively shut down. While schools continue to do online classes, assignments, and meetings, students still miss the experience of being in schools, near their teachers and friends. Nutley High School closed its doors on March 13th, and as of the publishing of this article, it is unclear when the school will open again. As a result, this has left hundreds of students wishing to be back into the building.

While the activity of Marching Band tends to be known by many, Indoor Percussion has yet to become a household name. Marching band includes wind and percussion instruments, competing outside on fields throughout the fall. Indoor Percussion, however, focuses only on percussion instruments with a few dancers, preforming indoors in gyms. While the Nutley Marching Band has been around for close to 100 years, the Nutley Indoor Percussion Ensemble is only in its fourth year. 

In early March 2020, The Maroon and Gray sat down with Nutley High School’s custodians, to talk about some of their responsibilities around the building. Head Custodian Mike Spagnola, with Custodians Anthony Moltedo and Jose Rivera, shared what their daily schedules look like. 

While the students of NHS are expected to arrive in their first class by 8:05 A.M., many custodians arrive at the building by 5:30 A.M. They turn off the alarms, unlock all doors, turn on all the lights, and prepare the building for the students to come in. This process can take up to 45 minutes.

New Jersey will always have a very interesting reputation. Its diversity, culture, and location are something I have always appreciated. However, this love is not shared by all. According to a recent poll by Matt Shirley, a social media poll taker, New Jersey is the most hated state by Deleware, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut. While many of our neighbors may not be too fond of us, New Jersey has always focused on what it loves most; itself. In fact, according to that same poll taker, when asked what’s your favorite state, New Jersey was the only state that “Likes No One.”

On Tuesday, January 14, 2020, Nutley High School held an informational meeting for the current eighth graders of John H. Walker Middle School to help them transition into high school. Since the high school process may seem daunting to students and parents, the Nutley High staff offered an opportunity to make the transition more welcoming and exciting.

In the last decade, Tesla has completely disrupted the automotive industry. The company has been synonymous with the term electric vehicles, and rightfully so. Their vehicles boast completely battery-powered cars, with ludicrous speeds and technology. The company currently offers four flagship cars, the Model S, 3, X, and Y, each with self-driving capabilities. Combined, Tesla has changed the way consumers look and buy sedans, SUVs, and sports cars.

Over the past year and a half, TikTok has become the defining social media app of Gen Z, not only in the U.S. but around the world in places like India and Europe. The app allows anyone to post videos up to 60 seconds and easily lets users use their favorite song or audio. Though it originated as Musical.ly, a nearly identical app, in 2017 the Chinese internet company ByteDance bought the app and relaunched it as TikTok, with all Musical.ly accounts migrating over to TikTok in August 2018.

For several months, the streets of Hong Kong have been filled with protesters, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands, many wearing surgical masks and carrying umbrellas that have come to signify resistance. With several suicides, thousands of arrests, and even international debates, the Hong Kong Protests are a demonstration of the extent humans will go to fight for freedom.

President Trump has always faced opposition, since even before the 2016 election. The people of America have shown their opinion on Trump, whether opposition or approval, and both sides are strong and passionate. With the start of the President’s term in January 2017, America has become extremely divided. While many media outlets are quick to talk about the change of Trump’s cabinet members, or his visits to his golf course, no headlines have been as important as the ones in the news now. The House of Representatives is moving forward in an impeachment process.